Body mass index associations between mother and offspring from birth to age 18: the Fels Longitudinal Study

Abstract

SummaryBackgroundParental obesity is a known determinant of childhood obesity. Previous research has shown a strong maternal influence on body mass index (BMI) during infancy and early childhood.ObjectivesThe purpose of this research was to investigate the BMI associations between mother and offspring from birth to age 18 years.MethodsParticipants were selected from the Fels Longitudinal Study. The current study sample includes 427 (215 mother/son and 212 mother/daughter) mother/child pairs. These pairs are repeatedly measured at multiple age groups in children, resulting in a total of 6,263 (3,215 mother/son, 3,048 mother/daughter) observations for data analysis. Inclusion criteria were children with measured height and weight for BMI collected at ages 0 to 18 years and their mother with BMI data. Maternal influences of BMI on offspring BMI from birth to early adulthood were analyzed by Spearman correlations and linear regression analyses.ResultsMother/son BMI correlations became statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) at age 5–6 years and were significant through puberty and into early adulthood at age 18 years. Mother/daughter correlations became significant at age 1.5 years and also continued through adolescence, puberty and early adulthood at age 18 years. Associations persisted after the study sample was grouped into life stages and adjusted for decade of birth and parity.ConclusionsThe mother/daughter relationship was more strongly correlated than the mother/son relationship and also became statistically significant at an earlier age than boys.

Prevalence and correlates of objectively measured weight status among urban and rural Mozambican primary schoolchildren: A cross-sectional study

“…High maternal BMI was the only significant correlate, though in opposite directions, for both overweight/obesity and thinness in the present study. This finding showing that higher maternal BMI was positively and negatively associated with overweight/obesity and thinness, respectively, is consistent with findings from previous studies [56,57] and may be indicative of the important role that mothers play in shaping lifestyle choices for their children, especially in the context of LMICs. It is also plausible to speculate that this finding may be related to household food insecurity where mothers would overconsume poor-quality diet leading to overweight, the child consumes small amount of the same food leading to undernutrition.…”

Impaired Phagocytosis in Dendritic Cells From Pediatric Patients With Type 1 Diabetes Does Not Hamper Their Tolerogenic Potential

“…In the present study, three similar groups of pediatric subjects in terms of gender and age were included. Patients with established disease had higher BMI, which was expected according to the recovery of weight after disease onset and to the distribution of BMI related to age (32), but nonetheless healthy, in order to avoid the hypothetical interference of inflammatory processes associated with overweight and obesity. Quite unexpectedly, here we found that the phagocytic activity of monocyte-derived DCs from pediatric patients with T1D was impaired, and this defect deteriorated with the progression of the disease but did not affect the induction of a tolerogenic phenotype after phagocytosis.…”

52. Cardiovascular risk factors track from mother to child

“…28 Several studies have examined traits between mother and offspring, such as BMI and blood pressure. [29][30][31] Results indicate that tracking of these cardiovascular risk factors from mother to offspring likely continues into adult life. A large, cross-sectional study in Norwegian parent-offspring pairs showed that a higher BMI in parents was associated with a higher BMI in their adult offspring (mean age, 38-41 years).…”